Walter Bunker (left) with Ryan Hoefer. Both are veterans graduating from Xavier University on May 17.

“I was thinking, I am getting older by degrees, so why don’t I get a degree?” — Walter Bunker, Xavier University Class of 2014

90-Year-Old World War II Veteran Graduating with Xavier University Class of 2014

May 14, 2014 — Seventy years after Walter Bunker began
working on his undergraduate degree, the 90-year-old World War II veteran will
finally walk across the Xavier University stage at graduation with the class of
2014.

Crossing the stage for Bunker, who
will receive a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts with cum laude honors, will be no easy task. Recently, Bunker did a walk-through of his
commencement procession with his escort, Ryan Hoefer, an Iraq War veteran who
is also graduating this May. It was strenuous for Bunker, who was out of breath
due to a lung cancer diagnosis last October and his 13 subsequent radiation
treatments. However, neither the cancer nor the seven-decade period between
Bunker’s enrollment and his graduation have stopped him.

He began in 1941 when he attended the Cincinnati
College-Conservatory of Music with a scholarship in violin. But with World War
II escalating, Bunker left school and enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corp. In
1944, Bunker received an honorary medical discharge and enrolled at Xavier to
resume his college career. He transferred to Notre Dame to attend school there
with a friend after a year, but returned to Xavier in 1946 only to withdraw
again for medical reasons the next year. For the next several decades, Bunker
attended Xavier part-time, slowly gaining college credits while working for his
uncle’s real estate agency.

Bunker, now with 10 children of his own who have college
degrees, says he’s been feeling a little out of place. “My son can say, ‘I have
a master’s degree from Purdue.’ My daughter in-law, ‘I have a master’s from Xavier,’
and my niece just got her master’s degree from North Carolina,” Bunker said. “I
was thinking, I am getting older by degrees, so why don’t I get a degree?”

Last August, Bunker called Xavier and related his story to
the Office of the Registrar. After collecting his transcripts, the office found
that Bunker was just two credits away from his degree. When the office discovered
he also had 47 credits from wartime service, Bunker was cleared to receive his
diploma.

Seventy years after the start of his journey, Bunker will
now walk across the stage with the Class of 2014 and shake hands with Xavier’s
president, Jesuit Father Michael J. Graham. And he will get his degree. When
asked what he wants to do with it, Bunker replied, “I want to be a cowboy.”
[Source: Xavier
University]

September 13, 2019 — Let us pray in thanksgiving for the life of Fr. James E. Fitzgerald, SJ, who died on September 12, 2019, at St. Camillus in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. He was 84 years old. May he rest in peace.

August 27, 2019 — Let us pray in thanksgiving for the life of Fr. Robert C. Thul, SJ, who died on August 25, 2019, at Colombiere Center in Clarkston, Michigan. He was 89 years old. May he rest in peace.